A Nation Divided – Part 2: Changing Your Mind Does Not Equal Weakness

For reasons I can’t comprehend, we’ve decided – as a people and culture – that changing our mind about something makes us look weak.

For me, the way I translate this is….changing our mind or, in other words, admitting we were wrong about something scares the bejesus out of us and we equate fear with weakness. We’re afraid to admit we were once wrong or that we know more now than we did before. As a result, we discount things like growth, understanding, compassion, empathy, the list goes on…

To make matters worse, we do everything we can to surround ourselves with people who think and look at the world exactly the way we do. We go out of our way to make sure we never put ourselves in a position where our beliefs will be challenged and we automatically assume that anyone who disagrees with us is wrong. And we all know what that means …. Being wrong equals being weak.

It’s Okay to Change Our Minds

We all need to break the cycle and begin to accept that things can change. Very few things are set in stone – save for the sun rising in the east and setting in the west!

I encourage you to check out this TED Talk from Kathryn Schulz titled “On being wrong.” It served as a good reminder to me that being wrong, is not a bad thing after all!

Now go …

Step outside of that tiny, terrified space of rightness. Look around at each other and look out at the vastness and mystery of the universe and say: Wow… I don’t know… maybe I’m wrong.
~ Kathryn Schulz

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This is the second post in a series titled “A Nation Divided.” You can read part one here.